Organic acids may be added to hydrocarbon fluids, such as heavy oil, Canadian crudes, shale oil, and the like to remove metals, amines, and eliminate emulsions therefrom. The organic acids added thereto may promote excessive filamentous bacterial growth and/or increase levels of slime-forming bacteria, e.g. Zoogloea within a wastewater stream produced from the hydrocarbon fluid. This bacterial growth may reduce sludge settling in clarifiers and cause operational problems within a wastewater system.
Effective handling of wastewater is an extremely important aspect of increasing the quality of life and conservation of clean water. The problems associated with simply discharging wastewater into water sources, such as rivers, lakes, and oceans are apparent—the biological and chemical wastes may create hazards to life forms including the potential spread of infectious diseases and exposure to carcinogenic chemicals. Therefore, wastewater treatment processes have evolved into systems ranging from the ubiquitous municipal wastewater treatment facilities, where sanitary wastewater from domestic populations is cleaned, to specialized industrial wastewater treatment processes, where specific pollutants in wastewater from various industrial applications must be addressed.
Biological and chemical compounds in certain wastewater streams may need to be reduced to a particular amount or removed altogether. Various attempts have been made to address treatment of such compounds. Therefore, it would be beneficial to discover new methods to treat wastewater and further reduce the amount of undesirable bacteria within the wastewater stream.